AI Pharma Frenzy! Insilico Medicine Signs Four Major Deals in Early 2026, Stock Surges Nearly 100% Year-to-Date

Entering 2026, the pace of partnership signings in the AI pharmaceuticals field has significantly accelerated.

On February 10, AI pharmaceutical company Insilico Medicine (03696.HK) announced a multi-million Hong Kong dollar AI drug research and development collaboration with CMS (00867.HK).

The announcement shows that the two parties will reach a series of AI-powered innovative drug research and development collaborations on multiple projects in the fields of central nervous system and autoimmune diseases. According to the agreement, the two parties will combine Insilico Medicine’s validated AI platform and AI-empowered innovative drug R&D capabilities with CMS's experienced R&D team and deep understanding of disease areas to jointly advance the co-development of no less than two R&D projects. Meanwhile, Insilico Medicine is expected to receive up to tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars in R&D funding support for each project.

Possibly influenced by this news, on February 10, Insilico Medicine's stock price surged over 11% at one point during trading and finally closed at HKD 72.25 per share, up 7.59%. Times Finance noted that since the beginning of 2026, the share price of Insilico Medicine has risen more than 94%, nearly doubling.

Insilico Medicine, established in 2014, is an AI-driven innovative pharmaceutical company. Its founder, Alex Zhavoronkov, has an interdisciplinary educational background in computer science, biotechnology, and mathematical physics. In 2019, Alex Zhavoronkov relocated Insilico Medicine from the United States to Hong Kong, China, and set up a drug research and development center in Shanghai. In 2021, to address its weaknesses in traditional pharmaceuticals, he invited Ren Feng, a former executive of GlaxoSmithKline and a seasoned drug development expert, to join, forming a unique "dual CEO" structure.

On December 30, 2025, after four submissions, Insilico Medicine finally succeeded in listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the largest biotech IPO in the Hong Kong stock market that year.

The prospectus shows that Insilico Medicine has generated over 20 assets at the clinical or IND (Investigational New Drug) application stage through its self-developed generative artificial intelligence platform, Pharma.AI. Reportedly, its core pipeline, Rentosertib (ISM001-055), is the world’s first AI-discovered drug candidate to enter Phase II clinical trials, targeting idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

Economic Times noted that this is already Insilico Medicine's fourth deal reached since the beginning of 2026. Prior to this, Insilico Medicine successively partnered with Servier, Hengtai Bio, and Qilu Pharma. The upfront payments, advance payments, and recent R&D milestone payments totaled $42 million, with the cumulative total amount exceeding $1 billion, covering areas such as anti-cancer, central nervous system, and autoimmune diseases.

Besides Insilico Medicine, another star company in China's AI pharmaceuticals field, XtalPi (02228.HK), has also recently reached cooperation agreements with Gan&Lee Pharmaceuticals (603087.SH) and VISEN Pharmaceuticals (02561.HK), mainly focusing on the metabolic field.

The achievement of multiple consecutive collaborations in a short period indicates that the technological value of AI pharmaceuticals is accelerating from "concept validation" to "commercial realization." At the same time, an increasing number of traditional pharmaceutical companies are embracing AI technology platforms, a trend that may be inseparable from the advantages AI offers in terms of efficiency and cost.

According to the prospectus of Insilico Medicine and interviews with its executives, by utilizing the company's core AI platform, the time required for candidate drugs to progress from target discovery to the identification of preclinical candidate compounds (PCC) is significantly reduced from the traditional average of 4.5 years to 12-18 months. Additionally, the number of test molecules that need to be synthesized and the associated costs can be decreased to approximately one-tenth of those required by traditional methods.

Specifically, through traditional drug research and development methods, it takes hundreds to two thousand molecules to create a Pre-Clinical Candidate (PCC) qualified for human clinical trial evaluation. At Insilico Medicine, only dozens to two hundred molecules need to be synthesized. Moreover, the traditional pharmaceutical approach requires tens of millions of dollars to discover a PCC, while Insilico Medicine only needs 2 to 3 million US dollars, reducing the cost to one-fifth.

This wave of collaboration fever is not an isolated phenomenon. According to a sector research report cited by Guosheng Securities, AI has shifted from isolated technical pilots to a strategic imperative in the eyes of pharmaceutical giants and tech behemoths. The urgency is growing amid rising costs, tightening profit margins, and constantly changing regulations.

The research report shows that approximately 85% of the surveyed business leaders indicated they are increasing investment in AI, with 70% of the companies treating it as a top priority.

Moreover, the industry mindset is also shifting. The report points out that there has been a significant change in the pharmaceutical industry's mindset towards自主研发 (self-developed) rather than purchasing. An increasing number of companies are inclined to introduce external AI solutions through cooperation or acquisition, with 30% of businesses prioritizing external solutions.

Regarding the specific circumstances of this cooperation, the advantages of AI technology in the research and development of which disease areas, and how to evaluate the advantages and risks of collaborating with AI pharmaceutical companies, among other questions, Times Finance sent interview outlines separately to Insilico Medicine and CMS. As of press time, Insilico Medicine did not respond, while CMS stated that the only information they could currently disclose was the content of the relevant press release.

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